Editorial Express&reg is web-based editorial tracking software that can
enable "paper-free" operation of the key editorial functions of a
journal.

Features of the software include:

free 6 month trial period: we offer the software on a free, no
obligation trial basis for the first 6 months.

extremely low cost: the standard price is $2000 per year
for continuous access to the software and 24/7 technical support.

lowest price guarantee: If another provider of editorial
software provides a lower price, we will not only match it, we will
cut whatever you currently pay in half, charging you the lower of
per year or 1/2 of what you currently pay for editorial software!

easy setup: a free 6 month demo version of the software can
be set up for a journal, and within a few minutes you can see exactly
how the software works

easy exit: a journal is never "locked in" to this software. The
software allows the journal to download its editorial database as
standard ascii Excel-compatible "csv" files and zip files
for manuscript, referee reports, etc.

nightly backups: Editorial Express can be set up
for nightly backups to a remote computer system (i.e. your computer). The system is also
backed up nightly to two independent tape drives (located in different buildings), providing a high
degree of protection against data loss.

powerful access controls: editors have the flexibilty to set access controls
for editorial staff. Coeditors can be restricted so they can see only their own
assigned submissions, or they can be allowed to see all submissions (and all referees
assigned to these submissions).

electronic submission of papers: authors can submit their papers to the journal electronically via
easy web-based forms, or a paper that was submitted via
email can be uploaed via the "e-Paper" upload
option, or authors can submit hardcopies
the "traditional" way. Editorial Express
is compatible with any or all of these different
modes of submissions.

electronic submission of referee reports: referees can submit their papers to the journal electronically,
anonymously, and securely via an
easy web-based form, or referee reports that are emailed to the journal
can be uploaed via the "e-Report" upload
option. PDF referee reports are automatically "cleansed" of
internal identifying information in the document metadata at upload time,
so that reports can be transmitted to authors by email, but still
guaranteeing the anonymity of the referee.

built in email notifications: authors who make electronic submissions receive an immediate
email confirmation that their submission was successful. Similarly referees who upload
referee reports receive an immediate email confirmation that their report was successfully
received. The
software also has built in "email templates" that the editorial
staff can use to customize and facilitate communicate with authors, referees, etc. such as
acknowledgements of submissions, requests to potential
referees to review a submission (and if the submission is
electronic, it can be included in the email message as an
attachment), and automatic reminders to referees. Thus,
Editorial Express can enable a journal to run the traditional
way, but it can also run in a paperless, electronic mode.
The software allows authors to submit papers (or referees to
submit referee reports, or editors to send authors decision
letters) in a variety of
formats including Adobe "PDF" and Microsoft Word "DOC"
files.

Automatic multi-level email reminder system:
Editorial Express has an automatic reminder system, and automatically
generated reminders can be sent to referees and to members of the
editorial staff after preset delays. Several levels of reminder messages
can be created, with differing delays until the first reminder, from
the 1st to the 2nd reminder, etc.

Easy assignment of editors: editors can view submitted manuscripts online and assign the
manuscripts to appropriate members of their editorial board
via a simple point and click interface.

Easy assignments of referees: editors can search large,
continuously updated data bases for appropriate referees based
on their field of interest, previous papers refereed or
submitted to journals and conferences and
other criteria, including the referee's record of "timeliness"
on previous manuscripts refereed for the journal. Links are
also made to outside online databases that contain
information on the names, interests, and contact information
of potential referees. The economist referee database contains over
30,000 entries with email addresses, web page urls,
phone, fax and address info and is continually updated
from a variety of sources.

Alternate distribution modes:
referees can be notified about a request to referee a paper via
email, and have the option to receive an electronic copy of the
submission via email, or via a password protected web page. Referees can file reports
(in any format, although formats can be restricted to, eg. pdf
files at the option the editor)
electronically through a secure web form. Referee
reports can be "cut and pasted" into a text window or
alternatively, the report could be uploaded as a pdf or doc
file if the report contains special symbols or mathematics.

Automatic email notifications:
editors can notify submitters about decisions on their submissions
by email, or through importing automatically generated letters
into Word or as PDF files that can be edited and printed out
directly on a laser printer.

Numerous built-in reporting functions:
the software can generate a continually updated public web site
which lists accepted manuscripts and overall statistics on the
operation of the journal such as the number of submissions over
any selected time period (previoius year, previous month, etc.)
the distribution of submissions by area (or JEL code), the mean
time to disposition (i.e. to rejection, first decision,
acceptance, etc.) and other statistics that the Editorial Board
chooses to make public about the operation of the journal.
The web page would provide all of these statistics and
more on a continually updated basis, and with historical
statistics going back as many years as the data exist.

Statistical reports: Editorial Express can generate
private internal statistical reports that can only be
viewed by the editorial board. These reports include summaries of
the performance of individual coeditors, associate editors, and
referees in terms of number of manuscripts they have been
assigned, the distribution by area, and the distribution of
response times, acceptance rates, and so forth. Response times
can be decomposed into component times that sum up to the
overall time from submission to decision for each revision cycle
of a submission. Overall statistics can then be tabulated
depending on the type of reports the editorial board wishes to
see, including graphical presentations of the distributions of
times to decision broken down into different categories and for
various subsamples (e.g. by individual coeditor, or for
different time periods, etc.).

interfaces to electronic publication: Editorial Express can
be set up to allow
electronic transmittal of the finalized manuscript to the
printers for final typsetting, and for linking to a journal web
page in the event that the journal decides to make current
issues available online. Forthcoming papers can also be made
available online in the formats submitted by the submitting
author prior to the conversion of the paper into the journal's
publication format.

Credit card charging of submission fees: Editorial Express can
be set up to charge and collect submission fees via web based
credit card forms.